When Johnny Depp revealed in past interviews time after time that has a young boy he longed to play the character of Barnabas Collins from the vampiric soap opera, “Dark Shadows,” I wonder if he ever thought that one day he’d actually get his wish?

Sources close to Variety have reported that Depp and Graham King’s GK Films have finally closed a deal to develop a feature based on the cult series.

A rights deal just closed with the estate of Dan Curtis, the producer/director who created the soap that aired weekdays on ABC, from 1966 to 1971. Depp and King will produce with David Kennedy, who ran Dan Curtis Prods. until Curtis died last year of a brain tumor. Infinitum-Nihil’s Christi Dembrowski served as the point person on the deal.

Variety

Yup. I’d say that about seals the deal.

“Dark Shadows” was a campy soap that featured all things Halloween - monsters, a few witches here and there, zombies, a pack of werewolves and yes - vampires, and even though it hasn’t seen the light of TV by anything worthy in years (although the Sci-Fi Channel did run the original series back in the late 1990’s), it continues to have - what else? - a cult following, including a Dark Shadows Festival (held annually since 1983), which is a two day event scheduled to take place this year at the Westchester Marriott in Tarrytown, New York on August 17 and 18.

The news that Depp has signed on to create a new - and much more current - “Dark Shadows” is probably welcome news to some, but there are those who will always prefer the original. No news yet on when we can expect to see the development come full term, but Depp fans can look forward to seeing him in “Sweeney Todd” next year.

Pictures, except for the header, are from the 2001 film From Hell, thanks to Allmoviephoto.